Passing Storm

“I had a little rough patch for a while.” - Crystal Shelley

Passing Storm

The view across the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, out of the Union Heights Office Tower windows was changing constantly.

“I can hardly see downtown!”  Heather said as she looked out from her seat at the conference table.

Heather Bollinger, Crystal Shelley and I looked out to see dark clouds with an underlying skirt of mist rolling through the valley as our meeting progressed.  And soon, we could see small drops of rain water begin to randomly mark the large glass windowpanes in front of us.  We watched as clouds rolled through the valley and alternating streams of sunshine created highlights as if guiding our eyes to drink in streams of hope.  It was as if we were seated in life’s classroom on a Friday afternoon, during a dynamic display of nature.

And, we took note of nature’s majesty on the outside side of the tower’s windows.  Yet, when my gaze left the streaks of clouds, mist and sunshine through the windows it was drawn to Crystal’s bright smile.  It held my eyes and captured my breath, right up to the end of our work together, before I stepped out of the conference room.

After a few, meager steps out of the room, I hesitated, and then retraced my path back into the room where Crystal was tidying up.

“I’m so glad you’ve found your smile again!  I said.

“Thanks!” She beamed back.  “I had a little rough patch for a while.”

“It’s so beautiful and I just wanted you to know I’m happy for you!”  I finished, before walking back through the reception area to go to other, late afternoon and evening appointments on the outside.

By the time I entered my car and began to drive west on the 215 Freeway, there was no streaming light at all.  The sun’s smile had been completely blotted out!  There were no small drops of water randomly marking the windshield directly in front of me.  I was driving in a torrent!  A torrent that slowed traffic to a slow crawl, through what I can only describe as the 215 Ribbon of River.

I motored carefully through the water west and then south through the teeth of the storm.  Then, the rain and wind abruptly stopped and the freeway was again a dryer, Ribbon of Concrete.  The front of the storm had passed and the view of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake had changed again.

I looked in my rearview mirror to see dark clouds with an underlying skirt of rain rolling on through the valley behind me.  I looked forward, through my windshield, and saw streams of sunshine glistening.

“It’s just like Crystal’s Smile!”  I whispered to myself in awe.

I continued to drive toward my destination, drawn toward the brightness of nature’s smile as its beauty held my eyes and captured my breath right up to the end of my journey.  Yes, I had hit a little rough patch, and I was fortunate to have had my day brightened by streaking sunshine and Crystal’s found again, brilliant smile.

Gordy's Resurrection

“I’m the guy from room 19” – Gordy Nicholl

Gordy’s Resurrection

“I brought you some lunch.”  Gordy said to one of the nurses at the critical care unit of the hospital.

He could tell by the way she looked at him that she had no idea who he was and why he had brought lunch for the whole nursing staff in critical care.

“I’m the guy from Room 19” He said to her to dissuade her obvious anxiety.

His brief explanation did little to change the confused look on her face.  So, he continued.

“All of you saved my life! And, I just want to show you my gratitude!”

She still didn’t believe him.  After all, she was certain that the injuries to the man who had been in Room 19 were far too severe for anyone to survive.  So, he told her all the details of his long stay there, right up until a smile of realization broke across her face.

“You’re the guy from Room 19!” She cried out, excitedly.  “Hey!  He’s the guy from Room 19!”  She called out to another nurse down the hall.

Her skepticism was warranted. It had been a little over two years ago that Gordy was lying on his garage floor, in a pool of his own blood.  He had fallen from the storage mezzanine in his garage directly onto his head.  All of us, his family and friends, were fraught with concern by the slim chance of his survival and recovery prospects!

Yet, here he was, smiling, recounting his journey back to health while sitting right next to me.

“No one thought I’d make it!”  He said.  “But I’m here and I have the fire fighters, the nurses & doctors, my family, friends, and everyone in my neighborhood to thank.  Without all of them I wouldn’t be here today!  I’ll never forget what they did for me!”

I leaned in a little closer so I could hear every word of his story.  We were sitting together in a large restaurant in celebration.  Perhaps it was the food of this moment that spurred him on to tell me of another of his personal conveyances to members of the Salt Lake Unified Fire Department.

“I went over to the station, that answered the call to help me.  I owe those guys everything!  I just wanted them to know, that because of them I lived!”  Then, he finished his story of wonder with his personal, usual saying, “I’m so great you just can’t believe it!” as we completed our day together.  It was a great day! 

“Gordy is great.  He’s a great father, husband, grandfather, friend and neighbor.” I thought to myself as I watched his serious yet, brightly smiling face walk away with his wife Jackie.  “And, he’s great at showing gratitude for his miraculous resurrection!”

I’m grateful as well.  Grateful that my friend Gordy is alive; grateful that he’s here to teach you and me about how to live a grateful life!  Grateful that Room 19 will forever be empty, to me, because Gordy is the guy “from” Room 19. 

Yes!  Gordy is alive and teaching!

Trap of The Common Place

“What are those pretty birds?” – Nelson Brill

Trap of The Common Place

The land fell to meet the water quite abruptly.  Pine trees coated the canyon sides right down to where huge rocks clung to the sides of a cliff.  The Snake River was rushing below it all!  It was breath taking.  Perhaps that’s one reason I was so surprised when Nelson began to ask me about another beautiful sight.

“What are those pretty birds?” He asked.

Nelson Brill, one of my school friends from Scarsdale, New York had never ventured out west.  That’s why we were on this little trip together.  He was seeing lots of things he had never seen before.  And, that’s sort of the way it was for me as well.  You see, he kept pointing out things like the birds he was asking about.  Things I was taking in as, simply “common” and not significant.

“What birds are you talking about?” I responded in a truly curious tone.

“The black and white ones.”  He answered.

“The black and white ones!”  I thought and thought.  What could he be possibly be referring to?  I was stumped!

“Next time you see one please point it out to me.”  I said, truly clueless!

Not long afterward Nelson pointed to one of the birds I had been too blind to see.

“There’s one right there!  It is so beautiful!”  Nelson called out.

My eyes followed the sight line of his finger so I could see this magnificent bird, perhaps for the first time.  I saw it for sure, but not for the first time.  It was a common magpie!

“Oh!  Those birds!”  I said.

Yet, perhaps I was really seeing them for the first time, this time through Nelson’s eyes.  They were beautiful indeed!  I had simply been blind to their beauty up to now because I had fallen into the “Trap of The Common Place!”

The trap of The Common Place is something all of us encounter from time to time during our lives.  And, perhaps some of us are never free of its numbing effects.  After all, a person held tightly within this trap’s grip lives in a world projected as if by an old, square black and white television set which lacks scope, depth and color.  They fail to see the vivid colors and depth of field offered to everyone who takes the time to look and really see the world as it really is, as Sarah Wood reminded me again earlier this week.

“Wow!”  She said.  “Look at that tumble weed roll!  But, I guess you see those all the time?!”

“I do often see tumble weeds roll along!”  I said to myself.  And, “They are quite magnificent!”  I said once again to myself as I looked through Sarah’s eyes at my common place, which also caused my mind to shift in time to when I first recognized I was living in the Trap of The Common Place.

My mind tumbled to where the land fell to meet the water quite abruptly.  Pine trees coated the canyon sides right down to where huge rocks clung to the sides of a cliff.  The Snake River was rushing below it all.  It was breath taking.  Perhaps that’s one reason I was so surprised when Nelson began to ask me about another beautiful sight.  Those magnificent, common place, black and white birds!